Where is Java used? 10 projects for which you can fall in love with her

A common question among those who are just going to learn programming and are about to make a choice in favor of Java: where and how can you use this language? The general phrase "anywhere" is unlikely to satisfy interest. Therefore, we suggest looking at the Java rating among other programming languages, its advantages and main areas of application.

Java's place among other languages

First, a little history. Java appeared 24 years ago as a response to the need for a platform-independent language. In other words, a language for creating software that is built into any device: stationary PCs, household appliances, and subsequently mobile devices. This, as well as continuous improvements in frequent releases ( the current version of Java is 12) allowed it to spread rapidly and “take over the world”. Today, Java dominates the development of enterprise applications, websites for large e-commerce projects, and mobile applications. There are over 10 million Java developers in the world and over 3 billion devices running Java. This language is the undisputed leader among dozens of others. According to the TIOBE ranking, in which programming languages ​​are ranked by the number of search queries on Wikipedia, Google, YouTube and other portals, Java ranks first with a share of 16% ( May results ), outperforming C by a few percent and twice C++ and Python.

Key Benefits of Java

The main advantage of Java is the principle “written once, works everywhere”. This means that software written on one platform will run on other devices. In principle, Java is literally capable of “singing from every iron”: it is used to create applications for mobile devices, remote processors, wireless modules, sensors, and in general - almost any electrical device. Responsiveness is one of the reasons Twitter moved to the JVM. Java is among the most popular languages ​​on GitHub in terms of the number of commits. The language is in demand due to the huge selection of libraries for any task. Well, the multi-million community is constantly increasing their number. Thus, Java is constantly being developed by both the creators of the language and its “users”. Due to the variety of libraries, this PL is flexible, so it's great for implementing new features. For both large corporations and smaller companies, this is valuable. For example, the flexibility of the language helped Spotify build a set of modules for developing microservices.Apollo . It is impossible to list all the brands that use Java. So you can limit yourself to a few top ones: Java is actively used to build the server side. At Amazon, almost all of the "inner kitchen" runs on Java; Oracle has been using Java since before the acquisition of Sun Microsystems; even the Pentagon's official website uses Java. This PL also plays a big role in supporting the Netflix service. Their infrastructure runs on Linux and their video encoding runs on Windows machines. With so many open source tools in Java, monitoring and updating data in different environments becomes much easier. The international fintech company LMAX uses Java to ensure that operations on the stock exchange are carried out with minimal delays. In general, in many of the largest companies, the backend part is written in Java to solve issues related to security, portability and performance. Sounds good, but is it possible to do something really cool with Java? And how. Here are just 10 of the hundreds of cool Java programming features :)

1. Android development

The fact that at one time Google chose Java for Android development certainly fueled interest in this language among developers. Today it is the most popular operating system, and almost all mobile applications for it are written in Java.

2. Cloud projects

Migration to the cloud is an irreversible process in the global market. Companies are transferring everything to cloud platforms: from data warehouses and individual services to the entire IT infrastructure. And Java has become the most popular programming language for enterprise development in the cloud. Last year, an independent organization Cloud Foundry Foundation (CFF) conducted a survey among 600 IT professionals and found that 58% of respondents use Java to develop enterprise applications in the cloud. Java is used to create application servers in the cloud, network programming interfaces, etc. Java is needed not so much to develop new applications in the cloud, but to ensure that the application will work equally well in today's "platform mix" of the cloud, mobile and desktop devices.

3. Virtual and augmented reality

Another link between Java and the cloud is AR/VR development. Many mobile applications (including those for Android) with augmented/virtual reality technology are located in the cloud. And there are many more than it seems: travel and gaming applications, social networks, applications in the fields of fashion and beauty, education, etc.

4. Software tools

It was Java that was used to create popular software development tools: IntelliJ Idea, Eclipse, Netbeans. As well as SAP business objects, the Jira issue tracking system (which is also used as a project management system), and much more.

5. Working with Big Data

There is an opinion that Python and R are more suitable for working with big data. But data analytics is a separate planet. Different languages ​​are used for different tasks, and Java is one of them. In particular, for the implementation of Hadoop (a file system and a set of tools for data processing) and Kafka (a distributed software message broker for showing real-time data streams, collecting big data and analyzing it). Java has a number of libraries and frameworks tailored to work with Big Data. For example, Weka , Rapid Miner , JSAT , Java Machine Learning Library - Java-ML , Java Data Mining Package - JDMP and others.

6. Self-driving cars

In order for self-driving cars to be safe, it is necessary to work out to the smallest nuances the solution by a “computer” of tasks that seem elementary to a person. For example, determining the type of object, distance, state (moving / standing still), face recognition. This is where Java programming plays an important role. There are quite a few tutorials that will help you get to the bottom of the issue.

7. “Robomedicine”

Chatbots in telemedicine (as well as in other areas) are not new in general. But robotic doctors are our near future. Thanks to the built-in technologies of the Internet of Things, doctors, without going to the patient, will be able to perform the simplest manipulations: measure temperature and pressure, listen to the heart rhythm. And someday robots will come to the aid of ordinary doctors. A couple of years ago, Chinese robot Xiaoyi, equipped with artificial intelligence, successfully passed the exam for obtaining a medical license, scoring 465 out of 600 points. Researchers from Beijing and Tsinghua Universities spent a year filling the robot's knowledge base with the contents of dozens of reference books and textbooks on medicine. And, as we see, successfully! And in any other field, robotics is no less in demand. For example, in art: programmer Dan Royer created the Makelangelo art robot,

8. Game development

Many popular games are written in Java, and many of them are familiar to everyone. Around the beginning of the 2000s, the heyday of Java games began, at the same time RuneScape, Gangstar, Zuma and many others appeared. The "star" projects in Java are the Assassin's Creed video game and Minecraft, which does not lose its relevance. The latter also strongly “hooks” on Java: in order to write plugins for Minecraft, you need to know Java, and then there is nothing left but to create other programs on it. Why is Java an attractive language for game development? First, because the Open JavaFX Graphics Package (OpenJFX) makes it easy to create visuals that are so important to gamers. Secondly, there are specialized libraries for game development, for example,Lightweight Java Game Library (LWJGL) . Thirdly, Java games can be played on any device. If you are interested in this PL for game development, you can read specialized forums, or even better, learn what it is like to be a game developer in practice. Start with the simplest - complete a few projects-tasks in the "Games" section of CodeGym.

9. Special effects in the film industry

With Java, you can go much further in creating a visual. The biggest movie special effects companies use Java to develop software-based wonders. For example, Industrial Light and Magic , which was involved in creating visual effects for The Avengers, Captain Marvel, Thor, Transformers, Star Wars and other blockbusters with millions of fans around the world.

10. Space development

NASA uses Java for a number of cool applications. For example, World Wind is a software development kit (SDK). It allows you to view close-up any part of the Earth, while using the artificial Landsat satellite and data from the Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM). 3D visualization is somewhat reminiscent of Google Earth, only everything is written entirely in Java. The range of Java programs written at NASA is wide: from infrastructure applications to user support services and analytical tools. As “local” developers emphasized , thanks to Java, it is possible to create multi-platform, productive, easy-to-understand solutions. And at the same time not expensive in the context of the software development cycle.

And that's just the cream on the cake

There are dozens and hundreds of projects where Java programming can be applied. The popularity of the language is growing, the demand for developers is also growing. What project would you like to work on?